Madden 11 NFL: Looking at the New York Jets Ratings

Taking a break from traditional NFL analysis, I thought it would be fun to look at the Madden NFL 11 Ratings for the Jets and see how accurately the virtual players match up with their real-life counterparts.

For over 20 years, the Madden franchise has wowed gamers across many consoles, and the Madden 11 version for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 (sorry Wii, I love you, but Madden doesn't) is sure to be a big hit again as it is almost every year.

Another fun addition to the Madden 11 is a new attribute called Swagger, presented by Old Spice. That's right, Swagger will have a numerical rating from 1-99 along side Speed, Awareness, Strength, and Overall among others.

Without further ado, let's dive into these rankings and see how the Jets stack up in Madden NFL 11, which is in stores August 10, with the demos hitting PS3 and Xbox on July 27.

Quarterback

Mark Sanchez is straight up swaggin' ladies and gentleman. Evidently the folks at EA Sports think that the young second-year pro has pretty good Swagger, 85 overall which is behind only Santonio Holmes and Braylon Edwards among offensive players, and tied with Nick Mangold and Jerricho Cotchery.

I'm going to stop pretending I have any idea what that means now.

At any rate, 82 overall is pretty solid for Sanchez, as his ratings for his throwing attributes all seem pretty fair. His stamina is pretty high, his awareness is 74, and his agility in my opinion is rated a tad too low at 70. He's no Reggie Bush out there, but he's a pretty athletic quarterback.

All things considered, I think they got this one pretty accurate. Sanchez smells like an 82 overall to me.

I'm not going to bother listing the rankings for rookie fullback John Conner, as he's a 67 overall. Tony Richardson on the other hand at 94 overall is the top-ranked fullback in the entire game. Not bad, T-Rich, not bad.

It appears that the game thinks quite highly of LaDainian Tomlinson, as he's an 83 overall and presumed starter Shonn Greene is only an 80. I guess the track record gives LDT the advantage. His Swagger is infinitely boosted by his incredible dance moves.

Greene has solid acceleration and decent speed, as well as super strength among RBs, he's got a higher Strength rating than his own fullback. 91 Trucking ain't too shabby either. Evidently, Greene should be truck sticking and LDT should be juking and spinning. Either way, the Jets look like they have a solid running game in this year's game.

Wow...the good folks at EA Sports seem to be very impressed with the array of weapons Mark Sanchez will be throwing to this season. With four targets above 82 Overall, it won't be all ground-and-pound from the Jets offense in this year's game.

My favorite attribute, as emphasized above, is the 99 rating for Braylon Edwards in the Spectacular Catch category, as opposed to his pedestrian 77 Catching rating. Isn't that Braylon Edwards in a nutshell?

Holmes looks like an absolute beast in this game, he's fast, he's agile, he'll disappear behind a defense. And then of course there's good old reliable Jerricho Cotchery, himself a number-one type WR in the league who is third on the depth chart and features a robust 97 Catch in Traffic rating. Good luck to all the nicklebacks trying to defend THAT coming out of the slot.

Okay, so we know a few things from these ratings. One, EA Sports thinks Ducasse will win the left guard spot. Two, Nick Mangold (the top ranked center by far) is a monster. Three, D'Brickashaw Ferguson's Swagger rating of 32 is apparently not a typo. Only Danny Woodhead (25 Swagger) has a lower Swagger rating that D'Brick among the Jets roster. Even Nick Folk and Steve Weatherford double that. (66, 65 respectively)

Whatever the reason, Ferguson is still a beast in this game, sixth among all left tackles. The biggest strength of the Jets is their offensive line, and four of their lineman are in the top six at their positions overall in this game. Kudos to EA for Brandon Moore's run blocking rating as well. He is accurately rated as the best run blocker on the line.

I do not know why Gholston is rated 75 Overall, ahead of Pouha and Mike DeVito. Despite the unimpressive ratings he has, Gholston also sports respectable ratings in acceleration (90), agility (83), injury (93), jumping (82), and hit power (87).

Feel free to bench Gholston in Madden 11. I know I'll consider it myself. It's obvious that 2010 is Gholston's last chance at proving his worth, and Rex Ryan will give him all the snaps he needs to do it...so long as he's productive enough to stay in the lineup.

Sorry Bryan Thomas, looks like you're the odd man out on the Madden depth chart. What Jason Taylor seems to lack in durability, stamina, tackling, and hit power, he makes up for in pursuit, play recognition, and awareness.

The two outside linebackers Pace and Taylor also sport lofty ratings for Finesse Moves (89 for Pace, 94 for Taylor) which are far better than the two middle linebackers' Finesse ratings.

The one rating I have a huge problem with is Bart Scott's pedestrian 73 Swagger. Um, guys? Pretty sure Bart Scott's middle name is swagger. If there was ever a guy who deserved a high 90's swagger, it's Mr. Scott over there. First roster update that gets released, EA better get on that. 73? Come on, man.

So it seems that Madden has Eric Smith winning the safety job over Brodney Pool. Personally, I think they're both going to play a lot of snaps, but in different roles. Smith has an 80 rating for hit power, by far the highest of any Jets DB, (for the record, Cromartie is last at 45) so he'll definitely be an asset to the Jets this year.

Kyle Wilson's got pretty solid raw ratings for a rookie, and I expect the lower rated categories to get a boost come roster update time.

Revis? What is there to say. 99 Overall, 97 Swagger. Swaggerlicious, even. He's one of the best players in the game, obviously, and with Revis Island on one side and Al-Cro-Traz on the other, good luck passing against the Jets this season.

Kickers

Gotta have those swaggin' kickers and punters, am I right? Let's just hope Nick Folk can kick as well as he did as a rookie with the Cowboys. The Jets kicking game is one of their biggest weaknesses this season, both in real life and in the game.

So to Recap...

The Jets are coming to play in Madden NFL 11. As the fourth overall ranked team and the home team in the demo that releases this Tuesday, they're sure to be a favorite of Madden players everywhere.

The Jets have the top-ranked overall fullback, the sixth-ranked left tackle, the top ranked center, the fifth-ranked right guard, the third-ranked right tackle, the fourth-ranked defensive tackle, the fourth-ranked middle linebacker, the top-ranked cornerback, and seventh-ranked strong safety.

The Madden version of the Jets are stacked. They might end up being the team that your friends say you can't be because it's unfair. Let's hope the real-life version does the virtual version proud.